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I love Christmas shopping. No, I'm not talking about battling down the High Street for gifts or fighting through crowds with a trolley laden with groceries. Who could possibly love that? My Christmas shopping involves delving into seed catalogues

Oh snow, where were you in London on Christmas day? Why are you here now, hampering our efforts to burn off mince pies through brisk gardening? There's nothing I can do in my garden, except ponder when the compost heap will start breaking down again

New Year’s Eve. A defining moment, the joys and traumas of Christmas behind us and the blank page of 2013 stretching ahead like a freshly hoovered carpet. The question is whether, for us gardeners, that carpet will be lush shag pile or meagrely

a very pretty white flower. However, all this is about to change as, my friend Cleve West will be forgoing his Christmas dinner, in order that his parsnips are flowering in time to be included in the Chelsea Flower Show garden he is designing

The last few days before Christmas have different effects on different people. Some are smugly satisfied as all presents have been bought and wrapped, turkeys and other Christmassy foods have been ordered and it is their sister’s turn to entertain

recording of a Christmas Special edition of Gardeners' Question Time (broadcast on Sunday 27 December 2009), at which John had been on top form.I'd been invited to join John, Bob Flowerdew and Pippa Greenwood at the Garden Museum near Lambeth Palace

right away.3. Insulate outside tapNot only must I turn off the stopcock to my garden tap to isolate the water supply (mine is almost hidden behind pipework under the kitchen sink), but I must wrap insulation material round the brass tap itself. Again, I

at Christmas when relatives out-stay their welcome. But as a gardener my shed is entirely functional... no stove, no bookshelf, no biscuits, just the tools of the trade.One of the previous owners of my house was an Italian family, and Gino, the father

It feels like Christmas has come early at our house. I’ve been given an apple press, and am juicing this year’s bumper crop of fruit. The kids and I are pushing barrows of apples, from our mini orchard to the kitchen.Eric Robson, the chairman

At this time of year it’s all too easy to stay indoors and become a couch potato. When I do venture into the garden, my fingers ache with the cold and the ground is so slippery I can barely stay upright. I can’t even warm up by working the soil